Don't tell Kazuhiko Nishi that Japanese people aren't creative. After all, he's the charismatic Wunderkind--the "Steve Jobs of Japan"--who dropped out of a prestigious university to become the nation's chief evangelist of the personal computer revolution. At age 21, in 1977, he started a computer magazine publishing firm. Renamed ASCII Corp., it is now Japan's largest software publishing firm. At 22, he talked Microsoft Corp. into making him its sole agent in Japan. At 23, he persuaded NEC Corp.

Don't tell Kazuhiko Nishi that Japanese people aren't creative. After all, he's the charismatic Wunderkind--the "Steve Jobs of Japan"--who dropped out of a prestigious university to become the nation's chief evangelist of the personal computer revolution. At age 21, in 1977, he started a computer magazine publishing firm. Renamed ASCII Corp., it is now Japan's largest software publishing firm. At 22, he talked Microsoft Corp. into making him its sole agent in Japan. At 23, he persuaded NEC Corp.

Tucked away in one of Tokyo's most fashionable neighborhoods, a house thinks, senses and acts on its own. It can tell when to snap on the lights by sensing your body heat. It knows when to open the windows, air-condition the room and water the plants. It will flush the toilet, flip on the faucet and air-dry your hands, all without human help. If the phone rings, it mutes the stereo.

In Japan, they're crying for telecommunications experts. China is scrambling for talented managers, while Malaysia needs technicians and engineers. The problem is even more basic in Thailand: Only 17% of the work force is educated beyond primary school, a liability likely to doom the nation to low-cost, labor-intensive industries unless corrected.

Nobuyuki Idei, president of Sony Corp., is in a bad mood. He is 15 minutes behind schedule, and the last place he wants to be, it seems, is in a private parlor of an elegant but charmless French restaurant in Tokyo, having to explain the future of his company. Fifty-eight years old, Idei has a boyish face that seems incapable of masking his emotions. At the moment, the muscles around his jaw are tense. The marketing man in him aims to please, but he seems acutely aware that his every utterance will be scrutinized.